Lecture on the Fresno HIV project

Join us by zoom to hear a lecture on the Fresno HIV project:

UCD School of Geography Seminar Series

Associate Professor Kris Clarke, University of Helsinki

Queer Love and Solidarity in the Valley: A People’s History of HIV/AIDS in

Fresno, California

Date: 27th October 2022

Time: 15:00 – 16:00 (Irish time zone)

Format: Hybrid

Where: E003 Newman Building

Zoom: https://ucd-ie.zoom.us/j/67337697877?pwd=UXhyc2t3ZzRrMlVMd0s2NFpYMXh2QT09 Abstract:

This presentation explores how HIV emerged in the 1980s in an American urban-rural setting. It sets the scene of Fresno, a racially segregated city colloquially viewed as the buckle on the Bible Belt of Central California, during the first cases of HIV. Drawing on a social cartography of socio-political and racial disparities and identities focusing on places of segregated deprivation and emerging diverse sexual identities, it centres how the Tower District, near downtown Fresno, became a gay and lesbian-friendly space despite the prevailing homophobia of the larger community. Using the theoretical lens of queer love, it ends by examining how the Central Valley AIDS Team (CVAT) was started by lesbian women and gay men who extended LGBTQ+ activism in the Fresno community.

About the presenter:

Kris Clarke is an associate professor of social work in the Faculty of Social Sciences at thE University of Helsinki. Their research has evolved from multicultural social work and care in the field of HIV towards themes related to decolonization, structural social work, and the significance of place and social memory. They recently completed a book in collaboration with Michael Yellow Bird, Decolonizing Pathways towards Integrative Healing in Social Work (Routledge, 2020).